The house of the former Prime Minister of Peru, Betssy Chávez, and the offices of 18 congressmen were raided this Friday in the operation of a special team of prosecutors and police for the alleged connection with the failed self-coup of former President Pedro Castillo and with corruption crimes .
Local television showed the members of the Special Team of Prosecutors against Power Corruption entering 41 properties located in the regions of Lima, Lambayeque, Ucayali, Pasco, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cajamarca and La Libertad.
Chávez’s lawyer, Erwin Siccha, told the media that she is “extremely calm” because her procedural behavior has been “impeccable” so far, as she assured that she has submitted to the investigations from day one.
“We have provided evidence and presented arguments” in favor of Chávez, his lawyer said outside the raided home in the Magdalena district of Lima.
The Peruvian Congress approved this Wednesday to suspend Chávez from his work as a parliamentarian and constitutionally accuse him of the alleged commission of crimes of rebellion and conspiracy for his alleged participation in the failed self-coup d’état that the former president gave last December 7.
And on the other hand, the legislators are being investigated for an alleged criminal organization for allegedly supporting the Castillo government in exchange for political favors or perks, after which they were known in the presidential circle as “Los Niños.”
“He who owes nothing, fears nothing,” Congressman Edwin Martínez, of the opposition Acción Popular party, told local radio station RPP on Friday night, after the raid on his home in Arequipa this morning.
Martínez assured that he is not afraid of going to pretrial detention and that “it will be shown” that he has “nothing to do with this supposedly corrupt group.”
The second vice president of Parliament, Silvia Monteza, another of the committed legislators, published on her Twitter account that she was giving prosecutors all the facilities in order to seek “clarification of the truth.”
Prosecutors entered the offices of the congressmen involved in the Parliament buildings this Friday with the support of the National Police.
For its part, the Congress of the Republic reported in a statement shared on its social networks that it granted facilities in the search carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office in the offices of parliamentarians.
“The Congress of the Republic is respectful of the autonomy of the institutions and guarantees the fulfillment of its functions. The personnel of the Congress have complied with granting the facilities and the procedures that were carried out normally,” the institution indicated.
